GOP Senate candidate backs union-curb measure

LA JOLLA  Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina yesterday endorsed an initiative aimed at the November ballot that is designed to curb the political power of public employees unions.

Fiorina endorsed what is called the “citizen power initiative” that would prohibit public employees unions from spending members’ dues money for political purposes. Instead, they would have to ask members to donate to their political fund.

“Today, public employees unions do far more than simply advocate for fair pay or safe working conditions or equal rights from their employers,” Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, said in a speech to the Fairbanks Republican Women Federated. “They have become the costly backbone of special interest politics in this state and the nation.”

The proposal commonly known as “paycheck protection” has been a central goal of Republicans in California for more than a decade.

Voters have twice rejected paycheck protection — Proposition 226 in June 1998 and Proposition 75 in November 2005 — by almost identical margins of around 53 percent to 47 percent.

JOHN MARELIUS

Work on sunken boat continues amid probe

SAN DIEGO: The laborious salvage operation for a 59-foot pleasure boat that sank in Oceanside Harbor over the weekend continued yesterday.

Crews towed the boat onto the beach and then broke it apart with a tractor so they could haul pieces of the wreckage away in large trash bins.

The work, by commercial salvager Vessel Assist San Diego, is expected to be completed today.

Oceanside police said yesterday that a criminal investigation has been launched into the crash, which occurred about 11 p.m. Saturday.

The boat’s captain told officers that the boat had a problem that left it without power, and the vessel ran into the rocks at the jetty. The man and a woman aboard were able to get to shore safely.

KRISTINA DAVIS

Possibility of showers decreasing late today

A cold storm that brought rain to the coast and snow to the mountains may spark showers today before leaving the area.

The system entered the county yesterday just as the evening commute started and dropped about 0.33 inches of rain at Lindbergh Field by 9 p.m., said Steve Vanderburg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Many areas across the county reported between 0.3 to 0.6 inches of rain by 9 p.m.

Snow fell in Julian, Palomar Mountain and Mount Laguna, but exact figures were not immediately available, Vanderburg said. A snow day has been declared for schools in Julian.

Unlike last month’s series of storms, this one was relatively uneventful, with one water spout reported off Imperial Beach about 9 a.m. yesterday.

“There was not a whole lot of wind with this system,” Vanderburg said. “There was some report of lightning, but it was in the clouds and no ground strikes were reported.”

Showers are still possible along the coast today, with the chances decreasing later in the day. Inland areas and the mountains could see precipitation into the evening, Vanderburg said.

Blue skies return tomorrow, followed by a warming trend with temperatures reaching the 70s by the weekend, Vanderburg said.